Robert S. Summers

Professional Biography

Robert S. Summers is a well-known expert for his work in contracts, commercial law, and jurisprudence and legal theory. His treatise on the Uniform Commercial Code, coauthored with Professor James White, is the most widely cited on the subject. Other influential works by Professor Summers include texts on legal realism, form and substance in the law, and on statutory interpretation.

He has served as official advisor both to the Drafting Commission for the Russian Civil Code and to the Drafting Commission for the Egyptian Civil Code, and he has lectured annually on jurisprudence and legal theory in Britain, Scandinavia, and Europe.

Before retiring in 2010 after a 42 year career at Cornell Law School, Professor Summers taught contracts and American legal theory.